Impact & Updates

Success Stories

An assistant principal at Branham High School and a single dad, Justin Ponzio dreamed of having a home for his kids – ages five and six – to live and grow. When he found the Empower Homebuyers SCC program in 2019, the trio lived in a rental near a busy frontage road that was far…

Megan, a Bay Area native and a special education teacher at Union School District in San Jose, had been living in a tiny apartment in Campbell. In her third year of teaching, she knew she wanted to stay in her community and was ready for something bigger but like so many educators in the region,…

After emigrating from Vietnam, Karen and her husband Ngoc worked in the Bay Area for 14 years – she in banking and him as a technician – and were renting incrementally smaller living spaces even as their family grew to include two small children. When they found Empower Homebuyers SCC in 2019, they were on…

Michele, an elementary schoolteacher, worked with our homeownership team in 2016 for our Below Market Purchase (BMP) program we administer for the city of Santa Clara. We caught up with her in 2018 – two years after she and her husband Don moved in, and they both expressed joy at living in a place where…

Dmitry, a teacher for the visually impaired, has worked for the Cupertino Union School District for the last four years. He loves the community he serves and could not imagine working anywhere else. Last fall, Dmitry first discussed his dream to own a home with his parents and they suggested he look into local down…

Katie and Carlos first heard about the Empower Homebuyers SCC program in November 2018 when a family member told them about the very first town hall presentation, led by Supervisor Cindy Chavez, about the new Santa Clara County program for first-time homebuyers. Born and raised in the area, one a city engineer and the other…

By: Laura Jones, schoolteacher, Santa Clara Unified I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase my first home through the Empower Homebuyers SCC program. I first heard about the program in November 2018 and I closed on my home in May 2019. As a third generation native Californian as well as a third generation…

The morning of March 6 was a morning long in the making. Villas on the Park – an 83 home permanent supportive housing development in San Jose just up the street from our office – had its grand opening. Jim Silverwood, President and CEO of Affirmed Housing correctly referred to the project as “a Rubik’s…

Marina, CA-Monterey Bay Economic Partnership and Housing Trust Silicon Valley announced today a $4 million loan to BRIDGE Housing for a portion of the acquisition of Paloma Del Mar senior apartments with the purpose of maintaining affordability for low-income senior households in Freedom, CA. The loan is part of a joint program between Housing Trust…

We believe our communities are more diverse, sustainable, and vibrant when everyone has a safe, stable and affordable place to live. While we’ve been able to practice this belief throughout the thirteen county greater Bay Area, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing it up close, too. Villas on the Park, an 84 apartment complex on…